Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices opened sharply lower on Tuesday, weighed down by losses in IT stocks and index heavyweight Bharti Airtel, while global sentiment turned cautious after US President Donald Trump announced fresh tariff measures.

At 9:50 am, the BSE Sensex was down 680 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 82,628, while the NSE Nifty 50 fell 190 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 25,519.

Infosys and Bharti Airtel together dragged the Sensex by more than 250 points. Among the top laggards, Eternal slipped nearly 4 per cent, while HCL Technologies, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Infosys declined around 3 per cent each.

Other notable losers included Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics, Trent and ITC, which fell over 1 per cent.

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On the other hand, SBI, Power Grid Corporation and Tata Steel managed to trade with marginal gains.

Market sentiment remained under pressure after Trump over the weekend imposed 15 per cent temporary global tariffs and warned countries against backing away from recently negotiated trade agreements, even as the US Supreme Court ruled his earlier tariff move unlawful.

Ajay Bagga, Banking and Market Expert, told ANI, "Tough day in the US markets on Monday. AI jitters meet Iran forebodings meet Tariffs chaos leading to skittish markets that sold off and stayed sold off. Indian markets have seen FPI buying in February that has supported the markets. Indian futures are down 100 points at the open, though given today is the Feb expiry, expect volatility and two-way stop loss triggering moves."

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He added, "Global event risk stays the dominant narrative. With old stalwarts like IBM dropping 13 per cent on AI fears, AI remains a disruptive force. Add on the tariffs drama and uncertainty, and we have three negative overhangs on the markets."

Shares of International Business Machines (IBM.N) declined sharply after AI startup Anthropic said its Claude Code tool could be used to modernise a programming language run on IBM systems. IBM shares sank 13.2 per cent. The stock closed on the NYSE with a decline of USD 33.81 to close at USD 223.35 per share.